The Kansas basketball team is less than two months away from the start of the season. The Jayhawks have an impressive non-conference schedule lined up that will give a reasonably good indication of how good KU might be.
Preseason prognosticators aren’t highly impressed with the roster Bill Self has assembled. In early July, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello ranked KU 21st, as did the staff at USA Today. One of the more optimistic predictions came from Gary Parrish of CBS Sports, who ranked Kansas 18th.
There aren’t any number-one rankings based on the name of the school or head coach this year, as in years past. No one is picking the Jayhawks as one of the top five, or 10, or even 15, teams in the nation. This season, the Jayhawks will have to prove themselves and move up into the top 10 where they belong.
After making some big transfer portal splashes the last few seasons with names like Hunter Dickinson, AJ Storr, and Rylan Griffen, Self went with lower-key transfers this season. Scrappy veterans from smaller programs who are experienced and know the game, like Melvin Council Jr., Jayden Dawson, Tre White, and Nginya Ngala. They are the only seniors on the roster. Everyone else is either a sophomore or a freshman.
The Kansas basketball early schedule is a beast
The Kansas basketball team will have plenty of opportunities for growth and improvement. There are also chances to surprise and prove themselves to be better than expected.
The three games that stand out on the schedule are Nov. 7 at North Carolina, Nov. 18 vs. Duke in the Champions’ Classic, and Dec. 2 against UConn at Allen Fieldhouse. These games will be a proving ground for the Jayhawks and could justify Self’s construction of this roster.
There are plenty of other matchups in the non-conference portion of the schedule, including an exhibition against Louisville, regular-season matchups against Syracuse, Notre Dame, North Carolina State, and Missouri. Additionally, there is an undetermined opponent in the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas.
As impressive as that slate looks, the games against two other bluebloods, UNC and Duke, plus another against UConn, the most successful program of this century, are the benchmark games. Kansas measures itself against the best, the other top programs in the nation. These three opponents qualify.
If Kansas can compete in those three games and even win at least two of them, then those who have forgotten how good a coach Bill Self is will look silly. It won’t be easy to win any of those, and there are strong opponents throughout the schedule, but if the Jayhawks show out well in the non-conference games, it will serve notice that KU is still a power in the Big 12 and in the country